Dodgy brake caliper

[New Kentish Campers]

I wonder if anyone else has had this problem:

A few weeks ago, I took my van out for its weekly 20 mile run. About 5 miles from home, I noticed it seemed to be sluggish on hills. When I got home, I smelt burning and found the o/s/f wheel to be quite hot. I jacked it up and removed the roadwheel and saw that it was as i thought, a stuck caliper.leaving it to cool right down, I removedthe pads easily enough, and the pistons could move easily enough in their housing. I put it all back together, did a 10 mile run, and it was fine.

Its been fine from this time up to yesterday,when it did the self-same thing again,though only after some 5 or 6 miles worth of driving. Once again, let it cool, took it apart and all seems well.

Any ideas as to why it's doing this? The rest of the system is fine; it had new hoses all round some 12 months ago, by the previous owner's garage [receipt to prove it was done too] and all the other brakes are in good order.

I'm wondering if perhaps somehow a piece of grit is lodged inside oneof the pistoms, but the seals are all perfect.

Obviously, if I need a new caliper, fair enough, but with pads etc too,it will be well over a hundred if I do it myself, which I could instead use to buy a few litres of petrol...

[Red Westie]

It sounds like the piston is seizing on this caliper. You could (pop the piston) clean up the piston/bore and rebuild but this is not an easy thing to do. I saw Futbus? advertising used calipers on here last week, his company does big brake conversions so ends up with used calipers etc.

Martin

[john1]

I had the same problem, after 2nd fix i got a recon part exchange.
Job done.

[New Kentish Campers]

Thanks Guys.

I stripped it down yesterday morning; one piston has a slight score mark on it so I can only guess theres a litle shard of metal in there that becomes jammed when the brakes are applied though I cant see where it is.

I'm not going to mess around with it as I dont really trust rebuild kits, particularly on a caliper, so I'll fit a recon and a new set of pads top the front while I'm about it it.

Fortunately, the disk itself looks ok, i.e its not become blue through overheating;' my mate is going to put it on his lathe to check for any run-out just in case it did distort.